Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar.(Restaurant review)

On a recent night at this West Village spot, a young woman--blond hair, petite, ebulliently extolling her recent wine-tasting course--sampled a glass of red. "Is it a Californian Syrah?" she asked her companion. The bartender began to offer a hint. "No!" she shrieked. "I'm trying to figure it out!" This tiny, wood-panelled bar attracts both wine snobs and wine neophytes, affectionate couples and solo sippers, and the bartenders convey their knowledge with enthusiasm rather than superiority. "That Chenin Blanc has a pedigree," one shared the other evening. "It's produced by one of the Chenin Blanc masters, who makes just a very small batch."

The woman swirled her wine vigorously, holding it to the light. "Is it a Pinot from Oregon?" There's a small galley kitchen in the back (much of the prep work is done across the street, at Blue Ribbon Bakery), which produces simple, satisfying dishes: delicate, deconstructed lobster cocktail; curried-goat sliders with a red-pepper aioli that resembles melted Velveeta but tastes nothing like it. An egg-on-egg shooter--hard-boiled, topped with smoked trout and trout roe, with a slathering of creme fraiche--is ...